All politics is local but some local politicians must be living on another planet. In an shameless act of self-promotion evidently motivated by forthcoming council elections, Dermot Looney, a Labour candidate, has called for the twinning of his native Tallaght with Gaza city.

The Greenhills-based Looney suggested the twinning would constitute a display of “material and infrastructural support from the people of Tallaght and south Dublin council in the time ahead”. We can but hope he at least has some idea what he’s on about.

With the economy in turmoil and local authorities strapped for cash, this year’s council elections are likely to be extremely strange. Unable to make credible promises about improving services in their own wards, some of these parish-pump demagogues may well seek publicity by trying to make grandiose interventions in international events.

About Me

Dermot Looney is the current Mayor of South Dublin County Council and an Independent left-wing Councillor based in the Dublin 12/6w area.
He was first elected in 2009 and will be seeking re-election in the new "Templeogue-Terenure" ward in May 2014.
He blogs from the left not only in defence of progressive politics, but in putting forward the case for 21st century socialism.